Lira shook her head, “You doubt the strength of Mars! Mars will endure somehow. We are the gods of war. We are the immortal in spirit! Since I probably won’t be seeing you again (and you’ll be dead soon), I guess this is farewell.”
The door shut, leaving Shane standing in horror in a small pool of yellowish light.
Daniel growled from behind him. “Melniz,” he said, grinding his teeth. Shane ignored him and leaned his head against the wall. Mars was going to be destroyed, and most of the ASA would be destroyed, all because of him.
“Melniz!”
Shane finally turned. Daniel glared at him, “Do you realize what you just did?”
“No, Daniel, I don’t. I’m a clueless idiot there,” Shane sat down, head in hand.
“I was going to get the Nesside away and…”
“Oh, please!” Shane said, “Where would you have put it? With Lucas’s eyes and ears everywhere, it doesn’t seem like you had much of a plan at all! You were just as clueless as I.”
“At least I wasn’t manipulated by a terrorist!”
“Seriously!? Says the Martian hating Earthite!”
Daniel looked genuinely puzzled. “What?”
Shane looked up, “What?”
“What did you just say?”
“That you were an Earthite?”
“That isn’t true!”
Shane leaned his head back, “Sure, sure, your great-grandfather is Jacob Glissan.”
Daniel, still looking very confused, agreed.
“And you’ve been in contact with him for a long time!”
“So? He is my great-grandfather. What am I supposed to do? Not visit him? He is a little weird and has some strange ideas, but he is family!”
Shane turned back to Daniel, trying to think of other reasons he’d been convinced, feeling very foolish and very manipulated, “Well, anyways, you hate Martians!”
Daniel scratched his head, “I don’t hate Martians…”
Shane stood up, “now that’s something I can’t believe!”
“Why!” Daniel spat, setting his shoulders, “Because my family was murdered by a crazy guy with a blaster who I don’t blame all Mars for!?”
“No!” Shane said, even though that had been one of his points, “But, because you hate me, and I’m a Martian.”
Daniel scoffed, “I hate you because you are so arrogant and because you never think before you do! You think that being a Martian is so extra special you don’t need to follow the rules. In this situation, you barge ahead, not thinking about some scant evidence that she probably used to make you think I was guilty instead of sitting tight like what you are supposed to do in a crisis unless given orders by an assistant!”
Shane thought back to the order forms with the missing names. They had probably been hers. “I don’t think I’m better. I just think you shouldn’t be ordering me around with no accountability for no reason! The number of times you’ve criticized me for tripping is ridiculous, and you penalized me more than others! All because you just ‘didn’t like me’! And you aren’t exactly innocent here! You still haven’t explained your suspicious actions, sneakiness, and that weird bomb-like device you were carrying!”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you!” Daniel grumbled and sat down, “And I really don’t care what you think because we are about to die, but for your information, I was searching for a bomb and trying to ferret out which student was going to set it off with some other assistants, of course, none of us expected Lucas into break into the intercom and call us all outside. And when I was the only one left, I knew I had to move the Nesside.”
Shane grumbled something and closed his eyes.
“…But that is when Mr. Detective Melniz burst through the door and…”
“Shut up already, Daniel,” Shane said under his breath, then louder, “It should take them at least twenty minutes to prep the Nesside once Lira gets it wherever they are setting up the bomb.”
“Great,” Daniel muttered, “so I’ve got almost half an hour left stuck in here with you.”
“I don’t care, you glowing purple kook!” Shane growled and turned away, facing the corner of the wall. Both Shane and Daniel realized what he had just said at the same exact moment.
Daniel looked down. “What?”
Shane stood up, “Why is your coat glowing purple?”
Daniel shrugged nonchalantly as if this was a regular occurrence.
“It was the Nesside!” Shane said quickly as he began to pace and snap his fingers, “The side when you were closing the crate you almost dropped it, the fine powder inside sprayed out all over you in a dense cloud.”
“So?”
“Quite, I’m thinking,” Shane snapped, “now Nesside will gradually begin to glow purple,” he gestured at the fine spray of glowing purple scattered lightly like a spray paint nozzle did a fly by, “because of oxidization!”
“This doesn’t help us.”
“Yes, it does. Nesside is highly explosive when combined with Jerrium Nitrate.”
“We know as much.”
Shane turned to Daniel, “We could get out of here faster if you wouldn’t interrupt me! Nesside is still a highly explosive element by itself, which is why people use it in the reactor room and why it is sealed in boxes, as it was. Fire is a great way to get it to blow up, I believe.”
Daniel looked at his own long coat in a panic, “what? No!”
Shane grabbed at it, “No, I’m not going to blow you up, just the door. Give me your coat.”
“No way, this is one expensive and…” he glanced at the spots of purple, “explosive coat.”
Shane grabbed and tore off the brightest purple section. Daniel shouted in protest and then hid behind a stack of crates as Shane stuffed the coat shred under the door jam, “Go ahead, blow yourself to Venus!”
Shane ignored him, finding some string and matches in the junk littered across the floor. He came back to Daniel, “I need more of your coat.”
Daniel looked at it distastefully, “you ruined it already, here.”
Shan ripped it loudly, enjoying the pained expression on Daniel’s face as he did so. Finally, when he was ready, he unspooled the string backward from the door to the hiding place Daniel had made. Daniel turned to him as he did so, “Do you remember what we were just saying about thinking before you do?”
“I am thinking this time,” Shane said, finishing his preparations, “otherwise I would have just tried to fire off the Nesside at the door and probably would have killed us, but I have it under the jam when it blows, it will blow outward, and we’ll be safe behind the boxes…”
Daniel actually looked impressed for once and began to say something but stopped when he heard Shane’s following words, “…probably.” He slumped back against the wall. “Great! Just great.”
Shane lit the match on the fuse. It was quick-burning and raced away through the area Shane had cleared and caught the brightest purple spot on the coat. Shane ducked behind the boxes just in time as the door flew outward, and smoke billowed up after it as if not wanting to be left behind.
Shane jumped up and sprinted out after it in the same manner Daniel followed. They rounded the corner only to run into Levi.
“I thought she killed you guys,” he gasped.
“Who?” Shane asked.
“Lira, we caught her working her way across the campus building, and there was a brief firefight, but she got away.”
“Firefight?” Daniel asked, “So you have weapons?”
“Not many. The cadets are organizing search parties to find them, but I only have a few dozen guns, which I was able to get out in the armory before it closed with Garris, the only other assistant in the building, trapped inside.”
Daniel and Shane checked the stores. Levi had a shock rifle, two projectile pistols, and two radial-15s, the only ASA weapon so far to outperform the old Frigii tech left behind when they exited the known galaxy. The radial-15 was also the only radial weapon capable of firing individual laser projectiles instead of the continuous destructive ray.
Shane took a radial-15, and Daniel grabbed the other. Levi slung the rifle across his back and holstered the two pistols.
“How do we find them?” Levi asked.
No one had a good answer. Shane shrugged, “Split up into search teams and try to find them,” then suddenly straightened, “No, wait, we need to think this through,” he said, winking at Levi. “Where would the best explosion be at?”
“The basement?” Levi said, “The structural foundation of the whole school could come down.”
“The fuel tanks?” Daniel asked.
“You guys both check out those places. I’ll check the reactor room.”
They all split up; Shane moved quietly down the darkened halls, looking for any sign that Lira or Lucas had been there. Finally, the radio Levi gave him crackled to life. He nearly jumped out of his skin as Daniel checked in, “No one over here. I’m going to try the courtyard exit. Maybe they put it near all those pillars; it is on my way to you. I’ll catch up with you at the reactor room.”
Shane approached the door. He tried to break the keypad and force it open, but Lucas’s new lockdown defeated him. With a growl, Shane switched his radial-15 to stream mode and held down the trigger as a stream of white-hot, faintly blue light blasted into the door, making it buckle, warp, and quickly fall apart.
Shane kicked aside the wreckage and darted through the smoke. Standing in the front center of the room were two figures kneeling over something near the control panel. Shane coughed from the smoke and quickly activated his radio as one of the figures stood up and ran toward him. “Levi, Daniel, I found them in the…”
A radial-15 blast hit the ground beside him. In an explosion, Shane was knocked back. He rolled across the floor behind a stack of crates, and his radio lay still in the doorway. Shane cursed softly, then focused on the immediate problem. Lucas stood a few feet away, inspecting the damage and looking for Shane.
He wore a strange pair of gloves and held the gun loosely, swinging it back and forth. “Come on out, Shane! You traitor to Mars! Mars will punish you, you know! You can’t escape its red eye!”
“He’s crazy!” Shane whispered to himself, then stood up, firing directly at Lucas. Lucas rolled away, but he needn’t have. Shane’s volley went way off the mark. The fact was Shane couldn’t shoot the gun straight at Lucas. He didn’t want to hurt him deep down, which seemed like a weird problem to be having when Lucas wanted him dead.
The crate next to Shane exploded. Shane scrambled back and grabbed the gun in one hand, firing a long stream out in front of him. It looked like Lucas got clear, but he let out a groan when he stood up. In the next shot, Lucas returned as Shane was getting to cover and waiting for backup to hit home. Shane’s weapon exploded in his hand after it took a shot intended for his head as he dodged.
Shane ducked back behind the crate, trying to think of a good curse for the situation when the crates began to explode again. He could hear the sound of Lucas holding down on the trigger, sweeping it back and forth across the wall of boxes. Shane crawled along quickly. He bumped into the side of a stack of boxes that moved away slightly with a squeak. Investigating rapidly, he saw it was actually a dolly piled high with crates. Shane stood up, and as Lucas saw him turning to fire, he shoved the dolly forward and ducked again. Lucas shot high, missing Shane’s ducking head by inches. There was an epic crash right after as the boxes and crates toppled off, and Lucas let out a yelp of surprise as the dolly smashed into him. Shane sprinted out of his hiding place as Lucas clawed his way out of the pile. He threw the dolly off and looked around for his gun. Shane didn’t see it either, so he took the opportunity to tackle Lucas to the ground.
He slammed into him and followed with his fist into Lucas’s face. Lucas shouted incoherently in anger and heaved Shane off him. He cracked his knuckles and activated some switch on his gloves. Shane’s eyes flared in panic when he saw what kind of gloves they were: a pair of death gloves. They were appropriately named since a light gripping pressure within would cause the gloves to respond by aligning microfibers in their structure, resulting in a grip ten times as strong. And when the hand inside curled into a fist, some models had metal studs that jutted out a few inches. But all, studs or not, made the punch twice as hard.
Shane dodged to the side as Lucas ended the circling phase of the fight and lunged at him. He swung, but Lucas blocked. Then, like a weird dance, they continued. Shane would have been stronger on an even field, but Lucas was not to be trifled with with the kind of power he now had with the pair of gloves. Shane came up under a punch and slammed into Lucas. Lucas nearly toppled over but grabbed at Shane, pulling him down. Shane stuck out, but that didn’t stop Lucas from rolling over on top of him. Shane heaved up, but as he nearly dislodged his opponent, Lucas slammed his fist down into Shane’s face.
Shane could feel what he thought might be his face breaking. Blood was coming from his nose and mouth indiscriminately. His vision was blurry but clear enough to see Lucas’s fist come down again.
His head snapped back as something that may have been a tooth or part of his jaw came loose. Shane saw the fist descending again like in a mist; he felt very clear-minded all of a sudden, able to see every frame of this moment playing out. And like a dream, he reached up and slapped the fist slightly to the side. Lucas’s fist collided with the floor, creating a small dent, and as Lucas tried to retract it, Shane pulled his knees up and kicked Lucas backward. Lucas crashed to the floor. Shane scrambled up and away from Lucas, rushing back. Sound bombarded his ears, Lira yelling that she needed more time. And Lucas howling in rage and agony.
Lucas leaned on his knees, facing Shane. Shane didn’t face Lucas but instead glanced around for the fallen gun. Lira tossed her pistol to Lucas, who fired off a round at Shane, scrambling for cover. One bullet found its mark in Shane’s leg. Shane cried out, falling to the floor and letting out a few more of the curses he’d remembered behind the crates.
“I need a new clip!” Lucas shouted.
“That’s all I have!” Lira yelled back.
Shane scrambled up, limping badly. His leg was on fire, shooting blasts of pain up his entire body. Lucas saw him coming and showed his own colorful vocabulary. Looking for a weapon, he grabbed a girder bar that blocked off the edge of the balcony-like reactor room that stuck out over the reactor below. Lucas squeezed tightly on the bar that cracked under the pressure of his gloves. The whole frame of the protective wall sagged slightly as he ripped the thick, heavy bar away easily.
“Come on, Melniz! Give me everything you got, you traitorous coward!”
Shane ran as best he could, nearly tripping until, when he was only a dozen yards from Lucas, his leg gave out. He collapsed to his knees in pain. Lucas barked out a harsh laugh and ran towards him, the massive club in his hands tipping him slightly off balance. Shane stood wobbly, watching him coming, and as he did, the world seemed briefly to slow down as he lost control of his body.
He watched like an outside observer. Like something had possessed his body, but with cold horror, he realized it was his own cold thoughts and his training shining through. Shane reached forward and grabbed Lucas’s hand, dodging the club’s swing. Lucas’s non-club-wielding hand hung loose, swinging with his loping stride, so it was easy to use.
Shane pulled Lucas’s arm up, clasping it around the wrist, holding the club. Lucas watched in surprise and confusion since doing this threw Shane straight into the club’s path. But Shane wasn’t done yet. Lucas pulled his hand back, but Shane pushed it forward, wrapping it around Lucas’s wrist and squeezing hard.
Sound and normal speed came back into the world as Shane rolled away, hearing the snap of wrist bones and Lucas’s frantic screams as he dropped the club and tried to disengage the hand with a grip glove that had just squeezed tight, cracking his bones into shards.
Lucas pulled his hand out of the other one at a twisted angle. Shane looked away from it, bile rising in his throat when he thought he could see bone. Lucas popped his neck and shook his good hand, “So that is how you want to play it, Mars hater? Huh?”
“Lucas, we don’t need to do this!” Shane shouted, backing up.
“Oh yes, we do, Melniz! We do! And Mars is on my side. I will be victorious!”
He charged at Shane, who met him halfway, ducking a blow from the dangerous fist and landing several hits on Lucas with his own. Lucas pounded down on Shane’s back and kicked his injured leg. Shane let out a shout of rage and rammed into Lucas, driving him back into the wall and into the metal girders. Lucas emitted a sound, a mix of pain and fear. Shane dropped to the floor, staring up in horror at Lucas, whose arm was speared on the spike of the broken girder from which he had pried his weapon. The entire wall was unstable because of Lucas, and it began to warp as he attempted to pull himself away. With a scream, Lucas fell backward, taking a large chunk of the interlocking bars with him into the multicolored light of death below. Shane collapsed, shivering all over. He kept shaking his head, mouthing the word ‘no!’
He spotted the gun, Lucas’s, likely kicked over here during their fight. He grabbed it and turned to face Lira, his body shaking, his face pale. Lira shouted out in triumph, “You are too late, you traitorous scum! I have the bomb ready to go off as soon as I press…”
Shane spun quickly and pointed the weapon straight at Lira. She was a foot away from the button that would end them both. She looked panicked briefly, but upon looking at Shane’s pale face and watching the gun muzzle waver a bit, pointing at her, she smiled again. That sweet but hideous smile. Shane realized that she found death enjoyable.
She grinned at him, “Go ahead, shoot me.”
Shane swallowed, “Step…step away from the controls!”
She grinned wider, “Shoot me.”
Shane pointed the gun, trying to hold it straight, pressing it closer when she reached for the button.
“Go on!” she urged loudly, “Shoot me!”
Shane swallowed again, “Lira, I don’t want to have to do this!”
“SHOOT ME!” She shouted. It came out hoarse and loud. Shane lowered the gun slightly, wondering why he couldn’t pull the trigger. He knew she was about to kill hundreds, possibly thousands. He wasn’t sure how powerful this bomb was, yet he couldn’t do the simple motion of flexing his finger. Lira grinned at him, “Exactly what I thought!”
Lira brought her foot up expertly, kicked the gun into the air, and struck Shane in the face. Shane fell backward, watching Lira finish the spin part of the kick and catch the weapon. Flipping it right side up, she pointed it at Shane, “You are weak and pathetic. You can’t stand up for Earth or Mars. Looks like your soul will be wandering the void forever soon.”
“I don’t understand what the heck you are talking about,” Shane grunted.
“Thanks to you,” Lira said, not bothering to explain her strange sentiment, “I won’t have to blow myself up with this place! Mars has delivered you into my hands, and now I can set the timer and escape with Lucas’s override codes.”
“Mars is just a planet! It can’t help you or want you to do anything!” Shane said, breaking off in the middle to groan as Lira kicked his hurt leg.
“Mars is much more than a planet. It is our mother, our haven, and our protector. You have no protector, Shane, and so you will die!” She pointed the gun.
“Let’s see Mars protect you from this!” Levi shouted from the doorway, firing off a round from his stun rifle, which crashed into Lira before she could kill Shane. She crumpled to the floor, letting out a moan before falling into unconsciousness.
Shane struggled to his feet, furious with himself. Levi greeted him, “We did it, Shane! Not to say I doubted we could, but I did.”
Shane scowled at him.
Levi looked slightly worried. “Where is Lucas?”
“I killed him,” Shane said coldly.
Levi nodded, “Okay,” he glanced at Shane’s face, “are you… Okay?”
Shane let out a growl in the back of his throat, “I couldn’t do it! I killed Lucas, I saw him die, and then I couldn’t do that to Lira! My whole body froze up. I didn’t even want to kill Lucas! I only managed to do it by accident. I failed at the one thing a soldier should be able to do easily.”
Levi didn’t know what to say, but Shane wouldn’t have listened. He was already down the hall. Levi sighed, running to meet up with Daniel, who sprinted up, “Is everyone okay?”
“Not Shane,” Levi muttered.
Daniel grabbed Levi’s coat shoulder. “What happened?”
“He killed Lucas by accident and couldn’t bring himself to stop Lira when he had the chance. I shot her with a stun rifle when I came in. The bomb isn’t set to explode, but let’s go disarm it.”
Daniel relaxed, “he’s fine, though?”
“Just a bad limp. He might have gotten shot.”
Daniel nodded, “Let’s go deal with the bomb.”
They didn’t find Shane, not before he found the real soldiers pouring in through the broken-down barricades, checking the perimeters and looking for the injured. A few medics wheeled him away to see about the bullet, which wasn’t as bad as it had seemed. It had only grazed the side of his leg.
There was a huge celebration, and medals and awards were given to Levi, Daniel, and several others, especially Shane. The Commanding General of the ASA, likely the most powerful figure in the known galaxy, personally came to thank Shane and the others, presenting each of them with a badge of honor. Shane hadn’t paid enough attention to remember what its title was. He smiled and thanked people mechanically, limping through parties and receptions with his newly bandaged leg. Everything felt dreamlike since Lucas’s frightened face had disappeared beneath the waves of light pulsating from below.
He woke from the dream over half a month later when classes resumed. He sat at a lunch table, staring at the meal he didn’t intend to eat. Daniel sat across from him, smirking as usual, and Shane glared back.
“You know what, Shane?” He asked, “I might just have to give you a negative just for being gloomy on campus.”
Shane leaned forward fiercely, “Well… wait, you called me Shane.”
Daniel nodded, “Correct.”
“And you aren’t sitting with the assistants.” The assistants ate in the same room as the cadets but had their own tables.
Daniel nodded again, “Correct as well.”
Shane relaxed a bit, staring at Daniel in a different light. Levi sat down, too. “You need to stop being so ridiculously gloomy. We won, okay!”
“I failed!” Shane said crossly, “I had the gun in my hand, and I wouldn’t fire.”
“If I had to guess I would say you are actually more upset about Lucas than Lira,” Levi said.
Shane frowned and shrugged.
“Lucas was obsessed,” Daniel said, “he lost focus and decided on violence. It was his own choice. You protected people from him. And I know you can do that again, and I know that you are the kind of man who knows when violence is necessary and when there can be a peaceful resolution. That isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes, that is the hard choice.”
Shane looked up, “That is why we exist, I guess, one day hopefully, because of the ASA, there will be peace. I guess I’d like to be a part of that.”